Not long ago, there were only two ways to watch television in your home. Either you subscribed to some cable services or you tried to catch from over-the-air signals. In the case of broadcast TV, all you had to do was to get yourself a nice antenna and that antenna would help you track down radio waves which would transmit images to your TV set along with some audio.
The more recent cable TV option, as you would probably know, requires the user to connect a bunch of wires either to his/her TV set or to a separate set-top box to get content. The cable TV wires are pretty long as they have to go from the user’s house to the cable TV station that is nearest to the user. That cable TV station is very important because it is considered as a massive antenna that gets all sorts of signals from different channels. There are also other options such as satellite TV which works a bit differently than cable and broadcast.
Regardless of what you hear online, the three methods we have described above are still the most used means of watching anything for the largest number of people in the world. But of course, new technology has to come in and disrupt the status quo. In the case of content delivery that technology is Internet TV or IPTV.
IPTV has truly changed the way people consume media and get their news. Of course, this is nothing new. Radio, somewhat, tried to do the same thing to newspapers back in the 1900s, and then along came television. But we’re here to talk about Internet TV or IPTV. IPTV, you should understand, represents audio and video that is delivered to the user over the internet. Most of the time, you will see the term IPTV, it will always mean Internet Protocol Television.
Firestickblog talks more about the best IPTV apps and setups.
If you have a computer or a mobile device or an iPod, TV set that comes with a set-top box, or even plug in a Firestick from Amazon, you can watch content via IPTV. Without getting too technical, IPTV is doing the same thing that cable wires or antennas did years ago. The only difference between the workings of an antenna/cable and IPTV is that IPTV takes advantage of the internet to send data to users.
But that is where the similarities end. In terms of content, there is no contest. IPTV rules them all. Compared to cable TV, IPTV has virtually an unlimited number of channels.
In fact, some cable companies have moved into the online broadcasting world and have started to offer their own channels via IPTV technology. You should have very little problems in finding your favorite shows (even the ones that only appear on big networks). Moreover, there are whole websites that provide users with programs that are independently produced. These programs are very specific so only a certain section of the target audience would have an interest in them. This is another area where IPTV is a country mile ahead of regular TV.
If you only like to watch shows on cooking or how to be a vegetarian then IPTV can provide you with several channels that deal with such issues. Cable TV? Not so much. Unlike radio or cable TV, the content you receive via the IPTV technology does not have any set schedule. You don’t need to track anything. Instead, IPTV offers you on-demand content. Of course, not all IPTV websites offer on-demand content but a vast majority of them do. Then there are websites that make use of real-time streaming video or webcasting. Such sites can still live broadcast if they want to.
There is no doubt that IPTV is a new concept and hence there are still many different ways in which you can consume your content with the same IPTV technology. On the other hand, it is true that the quality of content via IPTV can vary considerably more than the content delivered via radio or cable TV. Some content is top-notch and can cost a lot to make. You can get material that is of professional quality and brings you joy. Sometimes, you can get content which is a total waste of time.
